Nine Dead, 29 Injured After Seized Explosives Blow Up Inside Nowgam Police Station in Srinagar

A tragic explosion at the Nowgam Police Station in Srinagar late Friday night claimed at least nine lives and left 29 others injured after a cache of seized explosives suddenly detonated.

The explosives, officials said, had been recovered recently from an alleged terror module and stored inside the police station. Around midnight, the blast ripped through the building with such force that it was heard nearly 30 kilometres away. The police station and several parked vehicles were engulfed in flames, prompting an urgent response from fire tenders and ambulances.

Senior police and security officers rushed to the spot as authorities immediately sealed all routes leading to the area.

According to initial reports, investigators are looking into whether the explosion occurred during an inspection being carried out in the presence of a magistrate and a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team, which was on-site to collect samples.

Unnamed officials told NDTV that most of those killed were policemen and FSL team members who were examining the explosives at the time. Two officers from the Srinagar administration also lost their lives in the blast. With three victims in critical condition, the death toll may rise further.

The incident comes just days after a deadly car explosion near Delhi’s Red Fort on Monday, which killed at least 12 people and was labelled a terror attack by authorities. Police have linked the suspects in that case to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.

The Nowgam Police Station, where Friday’s explosion occurred, had recently been investigating posters allegedly put up by JeM threatening attacks on security personnel and non-locals. That investigation had reportedly led to the unearthing of a suspected interstate terror module.